Sorry about the giant picture, folks! I took these pictures on my cell phone and I’m still getting used to using pictures on WordPress. Before I get to today’s Lush post, I want to talk about an upcoming project I’m working on.

I have recently made an Instagram account. For years I avoided this social media site because I’m not the kind of person that takes a lot of pictures. But I was inspired over the weekend by a book reviewer on Youtube called abookutopia (https://www.youtube.com/user/abookutopia). She posts videos all about books and even gets to go on literary themed trips and gets advanced reader copies of books from various publishers. I thought hey! I do written reviews of books all the time on WordPress and I’ve been wanting to do video reviews. So, I have decided to make an Instagram account to add to my up and coming Youtube channel. You can follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/90sgrungechick/

Now, my ultimate goals from all of this is not to become famous or anything. Really, I just want to talk about things I enjoy and hopefully get the attention of some publishers to give me some advanced readers copies. I think I may have mentioned to you guys before that I do have a video camera, but the charger is M.I.A. and it is dead. So, my first video that will go up on Youtube will be done on my laptop webcam. However, imagine my luck with I came across the newer version of the video camera I have on sale for $10! I have already placed my order for it. I won’t be without a camera for very long!

For those of you that want to know, my first video will be a review on the book I am currently reading, which is the second book in the Ruby Oliver series. However, my Youtube channel will not just cover books but will cover anything I feel like discussing.

I will still be posting everything (including videos) here on WordPress as well. Now that I got all that covered, let’s get to the Lush stuff!

Herbalism

I don’t actually have a picture of Herbalism to post up here because I only bought a small sample from Lush. Which was probably a good thing because I am still fighting a breakout that I got from this stuff! Needless to say, I am not repurchasing.

But for those of you that might be interested, this is the main acne fighting cleanser from Lush and it is another “cleanser roll” that works like Angels on Bare Skin (see my previous Lush post). For pricing information check out Lush’s website.

Ocean Salt

This exfoliating cleanser is made with sea salt, organic lime juice, and avocado butter. It was suggested to me by a clerk that said it would help with my breakouts and brighten my skin. However, the sea salt in this stuff was way too harsh for my skin for every day use and I wanted something I could use every day.

But I discovered that Ocean Salt is actually very good for getting rid of the breakouts on my back. The downside is the steep price tag though, a little tub of Ocean Salt is around $21. I am currently using Lush’s Happy Hippy shower gel on my back, but if I don’t like it as much, I may switch back to Ocean Salt

Imperials

Imperials is the first facial moisturizer that I bought from Lush because on the website it says that if you are not sure about what kind of moisturizer you need, this one was a good one to start with. Imperials is made with lavender and orange blossoms and it smells absolutely wonderful! However, it is a bit too thick for my oily skin and once I use it up I plan to move on. I would recommend this moisturizer for anyone with normal to dry skin. This is actually one of the cheaper moisturizers at Lush. But a lot of the other ones run at over $40!

If you guys have been keeping up with my skincare segments, you would know that my main reason for skincare product hopping is because I would preferably like to find products that are natural and help with my acne and the overall dullness of my skin. I discovered a Lush store in the local mall upon moving in with my fiance. Lured in by the packaging, nice smells, and promise of natural products, I started my relationship with the Lush brand.

The first cleanser I was suggested by the clerk was Angels on Bare Skin. I was really there for Herbalism, but they were all sold out. When I told her about my acne and brightness problems, she immediately reached for the container and told me she used it all the time.

My first impression of using Angels on Bare Skin is that it was kind of a pain to use. Some of Lush’s cleansers are what they call “cleansing rolls” and you have to take a small pinch of the product and roll on your hand with a couple of drops of water. You roll it until it turns into a paste then rub it into your damp skin. As you can imagine, I soon learned that this was very messy and started only using it in the shower.

I liked the smell just fine. It smelled like lavender and somewhat herbal. But after using the whole tub of this stuff, I saw no change in my acne or any improvement in the brightness of my skin. I wouldn’t buy this product again.

I love using toners. They are actually my favorite part of my skincare routine. After I use a cleanser, they get any part of your face you might have missed and they make the face feel so fresh. I opted for the Eau Roma Water Toner from Lush because tea tree never works for my acne. I’ve had really good luck with rosewater based toners for brightening and acne. They also smell really great.

I found that I had better luck with cheaper rosewater toners than this one. There was no change in my acne nor did it help with the dullness. Though it did smell good, I wouldn’t buy this again either.

A clerk suggested this moisturizer to me when I told her I had oily skin. Lush’s moisturizers are very expensive, so I left with a sample. I’m really glad I didn’t buy a whole container. I just can’t get past the smell. This stuff smells really funky! Not to mention, I didn’t like how it felt under make up and I could just get a cheaper moisturizer that I actually like.

I really liked this product…at first. When I bought my first bottle, it did really help keep my acne at bay. However, when I bought my second bottle I noticed that the scent was off. I actually liked this scent a lot better, however since these products are handmade I was guessing that the ingredient ratio was off. The second batch really didn’t do as good and I have since discovered that products with stronger acne fighting ingredients help my skin better anyway. So, this is another one I won’t be buying again.

Just because I didn’t like any of these products doesn’t mean I have totally given up on Lush. I actually have a lot more products from them to review and will try more. What I have learned is that a Lush facial routine isn’t for me and sometimes cheaper brands are the way to go.

Way back in August, the fiance and I celebrated our third year anniversary by going to our local huge mall. As an anniversary present, he bought me the Vitamin E set from the Body Shop. A few weeks later, I purchased the Aloe Vera Line online (to compare the two, since these are the two brands that the clerk suggested to me). Now, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on these lines with you guys. The only thing I will not be reviewing is the Illuminating Vitamin E moisturizer because I already did a review of it by itself and you can check that out in my older posts.

The Body Shop’s Vitamin E Cream Cleanser

This cleanser was okay. It smelled great. The cleanser and toner smelled exactly like baby oil. It also felt pretty good on my face. Unfortunately, I would probably never purchase this cleanser again because while it did get my face clean and kept my acne at bay, for the most part, I bought it to put some brightness into my dull complexion. There was no change.

Vitamin E Hydrating Toner

I would say the same about the toner as well. It smelled good, but it didn’t give my face a good clean feeling. That’s something I need from my toner. This is not a repurchase for me.

Body Shop’s Aloe Vera Foaming Cleanser

I’m actually still using this one up. The biggest problem I have with this line is that the smell is pretty bad. The smell actually reminds me of plastic. But the bright side is that the smell doesn’t actually linger on your skin. There’s nothing very special about this cleanser. In fact, I feel like I have to use a ton of it to make my face clean. Definitely won’t repurchase.

The Body Shop’s Aloe Vera Night and Day Cream

These moisturizers made me really oily by the end of the day and they also had a very plastic like smell.

The Body Shop’s Aloe Vera Calming Toner

Same plastic smell and same problem as the Vitamin E toner. It didn’t feel to be doing much for my face.

The Body Shop’s Aloe Vera Protective Restoring Mask

This is probably the product I am most impressed with. I still have plenty left, but it gave the best results. It still has that plastic scent, unfortunately. I usually put this on last and leave it on overnight. In the morning, my skin is really soft. I still probably won’t repurchase it. But I recommend it if you have dry skin.

All in all, I’m not impressed with these lines from the Body Shop. But I would say that I favored the Vitamin E line over the Aloe Vera.

Yay! The last book is done! The last book is done! Now I’ll be able to get through books faster and bring you guys more beauty reviews and book reviews. I usually linked the previous posts about this series for you guys in the post, but I have to hurry up and get this post out because I have an online interview soon.

This last novel felt really flat to me. As you guys know, from my last novel post, I enjoyed the last novel a bit more because Arthur got a love interest. Well, she’s already gone now. Poof! Man, Arthur just can’t win. Basically, this novel wraps up the series by seeing what would would have happened if Trillian never went off with Zaphod. This version of her is known as Tricia. Unfortunately, her other timeline version (Trillian) still exists as well. Meanwhile, the Volgons (who originally blew up the Earth in the first novel) are cooking up something sinister in order to get all our characters together in order to finish what they started.

You can probably see where this ending is going, which makes for a very depressing series. I give this novel 1 out 5 stars and gave the overall series a 2 out of 5 stars. Some of the more interesting characters are also M.I.A. by the end of the series (Marvin is dead and Zaphod is gone). As I mentioned before, my main problem with this series is that I was expecting more science fiction and I got more humor. I also found the story line to be quite confusing and I had to Wikki every novel after I had read it. All and all, I’m glad I am done and can move on. But I certainly understand the popularity of the interesting humor of this series.

Hey guys! Back from another bit of hiatus. It’s been a really bad week for me, but it’s been turning around. I’ve been busy with freelance writing as usual, and because of that I’m behind on my reading. I actually finished the short story, YoungZaphod Plays It Safe days ago, but was so down and tired I never made the post about it. So, I’m here on Halloween to do that.

As for my plans for Halloween, the fiance and I stocked up on treats yesterday. We have a cherry pie and lemon bread. We plan to eat those while watching horror movies. We are also going out to eat and Christmas shopping.

I don’t plan to review YoungZaphod Plays It Safe because I really didn’t like the story. But I will talk about it because it is a part of my series of posts on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe is a short story that plays as a prequel to the series. Zaphod isn’t President of the Galaxy yet and is working as a salvage ship operator. He takes a couple of bureaucrats with him to look for any dangerous happenings that might be on a crashed ship. This ship was actually supposed to be sucked into a black hole because one of the “designer people” aboard the ship is actually so benign that they are quite dangerous because no one suspects them to do anything harmful. It turns out that once they get there the designer person as escaped and is actually the cause of the events of the first novel.

I actually had to read the Wikki page on this story after I read it because I just didn’t get it. I only have one more novel in the series to read, so I’ll be quite happy to get to my other books. The next book review post will be the last of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.

There will be some beauty reviews coming your way as well. Happy Halloween everyone!

Hi all! I know I have been missing in action a lot lately. I’ve taken on more freelance writing, so naturally I’m usually burned out on writing by the end of the day. But I finished the 4th book in the series today, so I’m back with another review! I know I promised you guys a video post, but I’ve been so swamped with writing that I don’t know when that will be. However, I’ll have a lot of beauty reviews to post up soon, so maybe I can try doing one on the webcam.

For those of you that are just joining me on these book reviews, I’m doing something a little different with this book series. Usually, I post a review on Goodreads first and then bring it here. But since I bought the series in one big collection on my Kindle, I thought it would be easier just to write individual reviews of each novel here and just give an overall star rating on Goodreads once I finished the whole thing. You can read the reviews for the first three books here, here, and here. Now, let’s move on to book 4 of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish.

I have to say so far, I really like this one the best. That’s probably because it deals mostly with Arthur Dent’s budding relationship with a lady by the name of Fenchurch. This one deals with some issues from the first book, basically Fenchurch and Arthur feel connected because they are 2 out of the 3 people on Earth that actually know that the Earth had been previously destroyed (and then reassembled). The only thing that is different about this Earth is that all of the dolphins have left for another dimension. Fenchurch and Arthur ban together, fall in love, and go look for the missing dolphins.

Even though I did enjoy this book, the plot was still ridiculous (as the whole serious is) and I found myself being bored at times. I would still give this book a 2/5 stars on Goodreads.

The next part of the collection is actually a short story followed by the final novel. So, I’ll read the short story first, just in case I need to read it to understand the next book. That means you’ll be getting a new review very soon!